Concise Beam Readme
August 11, 2008

This readme file is for version 4.47h of Concise Beam

GETTING STARTED GUIDE

Please see the Concise Beam Getting Started Guide for help in using
Concise Beam for the first time.  You will find information on how to
get further help and technical support.

The Getting Started Guide is distributed in pdf format (*.pdf).


HARDWARE or SOFTWARE PROBLEMS

If you experience any problems using Concise Beam we recommend that
you first ensure that you have the latest updates or service packs
for your operating system, as well as the latest driver for your
video card and printer.  We further recommend that you ensure that
you do not have any viruses or worms infecting your computer.  The
above problems have affected some of our users and impacted on the
use of Concise Beam.

1) Some users may find that the 3D image of the beam becomes
partially corrupted when overlaid by other windows or the menus.  You
can clean up the window by resetting it with the Reset item in the
View menu.  This is the evergreen tree in the toolbar.  This problem
is a function of the video hardware your computer uses (generally
older hardware).  If this impedes your use of Concise Beam please let
us know at support@BlackMint.com.

2) Concise Beam makes use of the OpenGL sub-system of Microsoft
Windows which is used by Concise Beam to draw the 3D image of the
beam.  Some video cards have incompatibilities with this Windows sub-
system and will not allow Concise Beam to run.  Concise Beam will
continue to operate but will not show you a 3D image of the beam.
There will be a note in it's place indicating that the 3D image is
not available and that you are able to continue to use Concice Beam.
On some machines Concise Beam may crash after showing the initial
splash screen (opening picture) in stead of continuing.  The installation
of Service Pack 2 for Windows XP can also occasionally cause this
incomptibility.  The following video cards are know to have this
problem;

	Oxygen GVX1 (made by 3Dlabs)
	Rage Mobility 128 (made by ATI Technologies) - used in some
		notebook computers
	Rage 128 Pro (made by ATI Technologies)
	Savage 4 (chipset made by S3) - used by video card makers such as
		Number Nine
	Savage 2000 (chipset made by S3)

Obtaining and installing the latest video drivers from your computer
or video card manufacturer has been found to solve the problem in
most cases.

If you still have problems then contact us at support@BlackMint.com for
a method to avoid the problem.

3) Microsoft Windows 95 and 98 contain bugs that cause Windows
Explorer to crash if files are nested too deeply in a directory (i.e.
the total path and file name is too long).  Windows Explorer is used
to manage files on a Windows computer and used by Concise Beam to
open and save data and library files.  Concise Beam also creates
temporary files when generating reports and graphs.  If you find that
you get messages that Windows Explorer has caused an error and must
shut down then you may be experiencing this problem.  Concise Beam
itself probably won't crash.  Old versions of Winzip (before version
8.0) can aggravate this problem.

If you experience these problems we recommend that you reduce the
path length to your data and library files by moving your files to
a higher directory.  We also always recommend install Concise Beam
in your local workstation and not on a network drive.  Lastly, if
you use an older version of Winzip we recommend that you update it
to the latest version available from www.winzip.com.